The Hearts that Sing
I’m not sure how to talk about today- as the week has gone on the work has gotten deeper, more truthful, more painful, more difficult. We are tired. We are heartbroken, we are despairing, we are staying.
This day was so intense. Sometimes it is hard to believe that more pain can be felt and that even more difficult truths can be spoken. These people are having the faith to come back, day after day. Most don’t believe this will be resolved in their lifetimes, but they are doing their part. For their children, for their people, for the world, I can feel that.
It was a painful day. It was a painful day. It was a painful day. At the end of the day there was heaviness in the air. The truths they had to tell each other were so hard to hear. From all the perspectives in the room we sat in in hard reality.
I had a thought, I should put on some music, it felt needed, yet I couldn’t move. Then a woman in the group asked, can I play a song- yes, I said! But before she could put it on someone in the group said to her- please- will you sing? She paused, and then she took a breath, and she began to sing, and her beautiful voice rose louder and louder, and we were all crying, and I felt that maybe I would never stop crying. And then slowly other voices joined, and soon we were all singing together. Louder and louder as we gave our pain up to the heavens.
And one by one we stopped until it was only her again, softer and softer and then silence.
That song, that voice, that spirit, all our spirits, what is there to say? In silence we hugged each other goodbye.
Someone asked me- why are you doing this- and I said, I don’t have much faith in humanity, but I have a lot of faith in humans.
Thank you for this beautiful day. A day that saw death and destruction and children and water and air and earth and animals dying all over this broken world. And a day that ended with the ability of the human heart to hold so much and find it in us to sing a song of healing and hope. I hope you are listening. These songs are being sung everywhere. They so deserve to be heard.
Here is a link to the song we sang:
